Perhaps she had spoiled her children a little too much, but given all that she had been through, how could anyone blame her? She had loved being a mother to her first son for the short period of time she had been given, and the need to get back to him had been her driving force for so, so long, but that had ended badly and she had suffered terribly for her own needs. Aleksander had given her a second chance to be a mother, and then a third, giving her the daughter she had always wanted. Alissandra was her joy, almost her mini-me but with powers from her father’s world. Over the years, she had given her daughter all that she could, given her the freedom and support to be whoever she wished to be, while acting as something of a role-model, if someone as dark as the Black Fairy could be called that. Her daughter would bow to no one. She would have no real equal. Those were lessons that her mother-in-law had instilled in her husband, and the opposite of the lessons her own mother had instilled in her, but as she watched her daughter blossom into a confident and beautiful young woman, she could hardly fault her parenting approach.

As her children grew older and needed her less and less, she felt that familiar pang of want. It was the same pang she had felt for centuries, and one that only Adryk’s conception had silenced. She was eternal. Ageless. So what was the harm in satisfying that pang once more? After all, had things gone as they should have, had Rumple not ripped away her life and the first life she and the Darkling had created together, Adryk would have been their second child, and perhaps that pang would have been satisfied by Alissandra. Persuading her husband hadn’t been the easiest of feats, and she was certain that his agreement had been all about making her happy, and nothing to do with a desire for another child on his part, but Fiona took her victories where she could. Her body was, as it had been in the past, quick to grant her wishes once she stopped taking the potions to prevent ovulation, and she soon found herself thrown into a world of mood swings and pregnancy cravings, and she was all the happier for it.

The response that she received revealing her pregnancy to her children underwhelmed her immensely. Adryk seemed uninterested, neither happy nor unhappy for his parents. She knew he had his own anxieties, that he had concerns about his own type of magic and his position within the family, that news of a new baby was likely unwelcome to one who felt he was already been cast aside simply for being the product of True Love, a beacon of Light within a family of Dark. Alissandra’s reaction, however, had surprised her more than it probably should have. Her teenage daughter had thrown a tantrum that would have rivalled any one of Fiona’s temper fits, and perhaps even her pregnancy mood swings.

"Are you upset with me?" she had demanded of her mother. Fiona had frowned
"Of course not. Why would you--"
"Then why are you replacing me?" she had screamed before storming from the room. That had been the last thing she had said before refusing to speak to Fiona for weeks, avoiding her mother at all costs, blanking her when she was given no choice but to be around her. Had it been anyone else, Fiona would have lashed out, likely destroyed the other woman, but this was her beloved daughter. She would simply ride the waves of petulance until her daughter grew bored of it.

As the fifth month of her pregnancy arrived, Alissandra’s mood still hadn’t improved. She had assumed that over time, her daughter would warm to the idea of being a big sister, that her hostility towards Fiona and the baby would ease or at least lessen to the point where they could have a civil conversation and reforge that mother-daughter bond that she cherished so completely. To escape the tension of the castle, Fiona had thrown herself into designing the new nursery, stripping the entire room down to its bare bones before recreating it all over again. Unlike her two previous pregnancies, she had done nothing to discover the sex of the child, wanting the surprise now that she already had one of each, but it did make the decorating difficult.

She awoke one morning to the sound of breaking furniture, the loud thud of an axe against wood sending a feeling of unease through her. She pulled herself from her bed and wrapped her robe around herself, following the sound across the hall, pushing open the nursery door. The sight before her caused her stomach to drop. The room had been almost completely destroyed, with wall decorations pulled from their place and wall paper half-ripped down. The toys were broken, teddies ripped apart, furniture split and scattered throughout the room and in the centre of it all, axe in her hand, stood Alissandra.
“What the hell are you doing?” Fiona snapped, waving her hand to remove the axe from her daughter’s grip before her gaze fell back on her daughter, the darkness in her eyes meeting the darkness in Alissandra's. She held her stare. There was no way that Fiona would be the first to look away, and her daughter never could beat her in a show of dominance. There weren’t any that could. Well, there was one.
“Redecorating.” Ali said with a shrug, pulling her gaze from Fiona’s. The Black Fairy let out a sigh.
“You can’t keep doing this. I won’t stand for it, Alissandra. I’m having another baby and your temper tantrums are not going to change that” Fiona growled, but the sudden switch in her daughter’s gaze surprised her. Alissandra’s eyes had darkened as she took a step closer to her mother, and Fiona frowned as she watched the younger woman touch her hands together. It was as though her daughter had been replaced by a completely different entity. Fiona was one who would usually embrace the darkness within someone, but the darkness in her daughter made her unrecognisable.

“Your power will hardly work on me” Fiona scoffed, watching her daughter’s subtle hand movements as she channelled those heartrender powers that Fiona had been so keen to encourage. She waited to see whether she would feel a tugging on her heart, whether her daughter would be able to conjure enough power to put her to sleep, but when nothing came of it, she shook her head. “Ali, just..” she paused, watching as her daughter clenched her fist. She knew that movement. She was stopping a heart. But if it wasn’t Fiona’s.. “What did you..?”

The pain came almost suddenly, the sensation of death striking from within her almost crippled her as she cried out. Her cry of pain seemed to snap Alissandra out of whatever trance she seemed to be in.

"Mama?" her voice came soft, scared, but Fiona couldn't muster the strength to reply at that moment. She fell to her knees, whimpering softly in pain. "Mama? I'm.. I'm sorry, what did I..." she could hear the panic in her daughter's voice, but a fog of pain settled on Fiona's mind, blocking everything else. She was vaguely aware of Alissandra leaving the room, hurried footsteps on wood growing fainter with each step, before returning with heavier steps, the familiar sound of the Darkling's boots approaching.

“Fee?” Her husband’s voice broke through the fog of pain as she felt herself lifted into strong arms, carried out of the room. "Ali, fetch the healers."